This is the view of the world from the eyes of a Sugar Islander. It talks about Anime, Boxing, Manny Pacquiao, Team Pilipinas and Fiba Basketball. It also covers Naruto and Bleach comic books. However, serious Asian society issues and Racism against Asians, Asian achievers in Sports are also discussed. Advocacies are carried on and never forgotten.

Friday, August 22, 2008

As usual Taekwondo stirs up fresh round of scoring controversies. This is not the case of losing jins whining but it has become commonplace. When a sport turns athletes into whiners most of the time - the sport must have a huge problem.

Taekwondo kicked up a storm of complaints against referees and judges at the Olympic Games on Wednesday as Canadian Ivett Gonda claimed she was robbed after losing her opening match.

"Everyone is saying it's unfair. I got ripped. Everyone is saying I got ripped," said the 22-year-old, fifth in Athens four years ago, after going down 2-0 to Sweden's Hanna Zajc in the women's -49kg flyweight.

"I could crawl up and cry like a baby but I am trying to be strong. I guess this wasn't meant to be, I guess God has other ideas for me.

"The reason for no points was they didn't see it," she said after her protest was rejected. "All I can do is laugh or cry about it. I prefer to laugh."

Protests against referees and judges have been part of the taekwondo competition since the Korean-born martial art made its Olympic debut in 2000.

Zajc faced misfortune in her second match after beating Gonda.

Her coach Chago Rodriguez said the Swede landed hits that didn't score.

"We were disappointed with that."

European champion and world number-five Levent Tuncat of Germany also questioned the judges after losing to Afghanistan's Rohullah Nikpai 4-3 in his first -58kg bout.

"For me it felt that I might have scored some more points," he sighed.

The fresh flare-up in refereeing controversy is a slap in the face of World Taekwondo Federation president Choue Chung-Won. He has insisted fair officiating is imperative for taekwondo to be retained as an Olympic sport.

"I will not hesitate to impose whatever is necessary, should you disgrace taekwondo or the WTF in any way," Choue told a meeting of referees here on Monday.

The IOC SHOULD NOT HESITATE TO REMOVE THIS SPORT ANYMORE! The sport's governing body had eight years to come up with more transparent and credible scoring but nothing ever changed. Time to take the boot TKD - along with Boxing.The IOC should concentrate on these important matters and not to petty things like this:

IOC president Jacques Rogge criticized Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt on Thursday for showing a lack of respect to other competitors after his record-breaking gold-medal performances in the 100 and 200 meters.

Mr. Rogge, if you have the guts tell that to the United States Men's Basketball team. We will see a lot of showboating tonight against Argentina esp. if they beat them big. Warn LeBron, Carmelo and Wade. You can't do it, can you? I thought so. Come to think of it I think it was the NBA-powered US Team that brought showboating to the Olympics (esp. the 2000 team - the most egotistical ever.)

BIGGEST UPSET

Japan scored the BIGGEST Olympic upset yesterday beating the United States 3-1 in the Softball Grand Finals held in Fengtai Softball Field. From the Olympic site the best and objective portal for Olympic news:

Japan put the first run of the game on the board in the third inning. Karino Ayumi beat out a ground ball hit deep to shortstop, allowing Mishina Masumi to score from third base. It was the first earned run given up by any of the Team USA pitchers in the tournament.

The second earned run came when Japan's center fielder Yamada Eri dropped one of Cat Osterman's pitches over the center field fence to lead off the fourth inning.

The United States got one run back in the bottom of the inning. Leadoff batter Crystl Bustos connected with a Ueno Yukiko pitch and pumped it into the right center field stands. The homerun was Bustos's sixth of the Games and the 14th in her Olympic career, both Olympic records.

But the wheels came off for the US team in the top of the seventh inning. Two errors, including one on a play at the plate by relief pitcher Monica Abbott, enabled Hirose Megu to score Japan's third run and end the United State's domination of the sport at the Olympics.

Ueno, who pitched 21 innings over two games Wednesday to get Japan into the gold medal games, picked up the victory after losing to Team USA the previous day. She pitched all seven innings, giving up one run, five hits and two walks. She struck out four batters to win her fifth game of the tournament.

Ueno Yukiko tormented the Americans again at the 2005 World Cup, she defeated the U.S. 3-1 in the gold medal game. Source: NBC

Umedeto! Bye Softball. Nice seein' ya.

Don't get me wrong - the Americans dominated this tournament like what they did in Greece. Japan's victory was a fluke. The Americans beat them twice in the tournament. In Athens, USA scored 58 runs against opponents 1. In this year's Olympic tournament, USA scored 58 gave up 5. There's no parity in this sport yet and it shouldn't return from the Games soon - that's almost 6 runs a game!

Venezuela

WIN

11-0

Austraia

WIN

3-0

Canada

WIN

8-1

Japan

WIN

7-0

Chinese Taipei

WIN

7-0

Netherlands

WIN

8-0

China

WIN

9-0

Japan

WIN

4-1

Japan

LOSS

1-4

See the pounding USA gave its opponents?

There are other sports with much better parity than softball and they deserve to be in the Olympics.

You may ask why Badminton is an Olympic sport. Pure and simple - it is the second most popular in the world based on number of national federations. It has parity. No country has come to dominate it. The matches are high quality. Can you honestly say it for Softball? Are 11-0, 8-0, 9-0 and 7-0 games competitive? Good riddance.